Operas take UNC into ‘Undiscovered Country’

Brian Clay Luedloff has a good reason he’s calling the University of Northern Colorado’s first operatic venture of the new school year “The Undiscovered Country.”

The nine scenes he’s selected to be performed by the school’s Opera Theatre Program next Friday and Saturday are, well, foreign territory for many of his students, and probably will be for the audience, too – despite the fact they originated in the United States.

“These are some of the least known, but most deserving among American operas,” said Luedloff, the director of UNC’s opera program. “It’s good for (students) to be exposed to American opera by American composers.”

Works include scenes from “Anna Karenina” and “Dreamkeepers” by David Carlson, an adaptation of Moliere’s “Tartuffe” by Kirke Mechem, the comedy “Too Many Sopranos” by Edwin Penhorwood and “La Divina” by Thomas Pasatieri.

The scenes are produced by graduate and doctoral students in conjunction with the UNC Opera Theatre Directing Seminar, the UNC Conducting Seminar under the direction of Russell Guyver, and the UNC Collaborative Piano Program under the direction of Caleb Harris.

For Luedloff, the material – while largely unknown – is more accessible for a less opera-savvy audience and students or children intimidated by the intensity of traditional European opera.

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“In fact, one of our promotional ideas was that it’s not your grandmother’s opera,” Luedloff said. “They’re very contemporary stories; it’s very contemporary music. A lot of the material is written for an audience that’s savvy about film and television and video. They’re written for an audience that’s used to shorter scenes or smaller bits of information.”